On Wednesday, the Department of Defense announced that it has awarded Boeing subsidiary Insitu a 25-month contract to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) support to the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM).

The contract, which calls upon Insitu to provide "Mid-Endurance Unmanned Aircraft System (MEUAS)" ISR services to SOCOM, is valued at up to $190 million over the 25-month period. It specifies, however, not the actual purchase of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), but rather the hiring of Insitu to provide ISR services "using contractor-owned and contractor-operated equipment."

Insitu is the maker of the ScanEagle and NightEagle UAVs, which have been previously chosen to perform similar work for the military, and are presumably the UAVs Insitu would utilize to perform the current SOCOM contract. Past contracts for similar services have used both Insitu's ScanEagle, and also the Textron Shadow and Aerosonde UAVs.